Nigerians have taken to the social media to blast airlines for the high cost of tickets for domestic flights during the Christmas season.
This comes on the heels of complaints by National Assembly members who say that the cost of air tickets is far beyond what the average Nigerian can afford.
At one of the plenary sessions at the Senate this week, lawmakers took turns lamenting the high cost of fares.
Senator Onyekachi of Ebonyi North recounted his shock at discovering the cost of a one-way ticket from Abuja to Enugu on December 13th.
“I called my personal assistant to get the ticket for me. Shockingly, the cost for a one-way ticket is N500,000 with Air Peace and N460,000 for Ibom Air. This is unheard of,” he said.
Senator Adamu Aliero revealed he would need to spend close to N700,000 to travel to Kebbi, saying that it is unaffordable, while Senator Abdulfatai Buhari also voiced his frustration, saying that flights from Abuja to Lagos now range from N400,000 to N650,000.
Abuja to Enugu costs about N500,000 and Abuja to Ilorin was approximately N450,000.
A passenger, FS Yusuf, who was reacting to the cost of a flight from Lagos to Owerri via Air Peace for December 13th, which was N499,998, said: “This is pure wickedness and so unfair. How can a flight of less than one hour be N500,000?”
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had told State House correspondents this week that the government has no power to fix prices for private enterprises, including the aviation industry.
However, stakeholders have pushed back, saying that a government that takes more than 50 per cent of ticket costs as taxes, charges, and levies cannot claim to be powerless in making flight tickets affordable.
(The Sun)
